I-STEAM Pathways: Environmental Education Program for Indigenous Students

Enabling First Nations, Métis or Inuit undergraduate students to gain research experience in environmental fields including science, environmental engineering, environmental law and policy.

I-STEAM Pathways: Environmental Research Internships for Indigenous Students

Providing research experience for First Nations, Métis and Inuit undergraduate students in environmental fields including science, environmental engineering, environmental law and policy.
Fostering systemic change through the incorporation of Indigenous values and worldviews in environmental policy and planning.

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Internship applications

All First Nations, Métis and Inuit undergraduate students attending a Canadian post-secondary institution are eligible to apply. Applications for the 2025 internship program will open here in December 2024.

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Giving and Donors

I-STEAM Pathways relies on public and private sponsors to help support and scale the program. Learn more about how you can donate.

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About

Exchanging Knowledge, Cultivating Change

Voices of I-STEAM Pathways Indigenous Summer Interns 2023

In Summer 2023, 18 excited Indigenous interns from a wide range of Indigenous communities including Lac St Anne, Haudenosaunee, Peyasis, Samson Cree and Sikisika, joined the program. They engaged in a wide range of environmental research projects including monitoring of water chemistry in the Hay River watershed; impacts of climate change and land use; development of IoT Sensor Platforms for Remote Environmental Monitoring; biopolymers as absorbents for water treatment; examining compost blends for regenerative agriculture and so much more. This video contains tiny snippets of their experiences as they and their supervisors carried out exciting and highly-relevant environmental research.

Testimonials

My I-Steam experience has been a crucial part for me to even consider a future career in graduate school. I worked under Dr. Maya Bhatia and Dr. Suzanne Tank on a Master’s student’s project with the Canadian Mountain Network studying glacier carbon impact to the biological community in glacial streams. I have finished my undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at Mount Royal University and am highly considering a Masters at University of Alberta or University of Calgary. Without the experience I had in I-Steam, I would have never thought of going to graduate school.

Sam Metacat-yah, Dene Tha’ First Nation, 2022 intern

The impact that the I-STEAM program had on my academic journey was immense and ongoing. My internship was supervised by Dr. Laurel Wheeler and we are still in frequent contact. Dr. Wheeler answers my questions about job opportunities, academics and graduate school very often. Currently I am a third year undergraduate student in statistics, I am planning to pursue a masters in statistics and my home band is six nations from Ontario.

Tristan Monahan, 2021 intern

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